USS LYNX

In modern times, the unexplained disappearance of a vessel at sea would raise much interest, concern, news coverage, and even sensationalist speculation.  Witness the loss of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in 2014.  In the 19^th century, however, losses due to act of God were a known risk of oceanic enterprise. 

When President James Madison received from Congress a declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, he found the US Navy woefully inadequate to the task.  Part of the subsequent build-up for that war included the creation two squadrons that could raid British shipping.  A contract was let to Mr. James Owner of Georgetown, DC, for the construction of a Baltimore Clipper-rigged schooner of 150 tons displacement and six guns.  Construction delays prevented her completion prior to the summer of 1815, six months after the end of the fighting.  Nevertheless, on 3 July 1815 she was commissioned into our Navy as USS LYNX, manned with 50 crewmen, and sent with Commodore William Bainbridge’s nine-ship squadron to the Mediterranean to police Barbary piracy.

Here, LYNX arrived too late for combat again.  Bainbridge took over command of our Mediterranean Squadron, and LYNX remained in the area for a year, showing the flag to insure Barbary peace.  Upon her return to the United States, her new skipper LT George W. Storer surveyed the northeastern coast, until piracy, that had started before the turn of the century. surfaced again along our Gulf coast.  LYNX was sent south to address this.

By 1819 LYNX had yet a new captain, LT John R. Madison, and experienced her first brush with combat.  On 24 October she overhauled and engaged two pirate schooners and two smaller boats loaded with booty off Louisiana.  LYNX departed subsequently for the coast of Texas, then part of Mexico.  Here, in Galveston Bay, she captured another pirate boat also loaded with stolen booty.

By early 1820, LYNX was operating out of St. Mary’s on Georgia’s Atlantic coast, from whence she received orders to Kingston, Jamaica.  Piracy had become rampant in the Caribbean, as newly independent former Spanish colonies such as Venezuela and Colombia commissioned privateers against Spanish shipping.  These privateers too often placed profit above patriotism and attacked ships of any nation.  American traders were falling victim, and LYNX was to be part of our Navy’s efforts against this affront.

On this day LYNX disappeared over the horizon, heading south.  Neither she nor Madison nor any of her crew were ever seen again.  The mythical Bermuda Triangle notwithstanding, a search by USS Nonsuch, 14, turned up nothing.  Months later some unidentifiable wreckage was found on Craysons Reef, off Florida, that is believed today to have been the remains of USS Lynx.  In the days before accurate weather forecasting, losses at sea were not uncommon.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  15 JAN 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cooney, David M.  A Chronology of the U.S. Navy:  1775-1965.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 48.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 172-73.

Silverstone, Paul H.  The Sailing Navy, 1775-1854.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2001, p. 55.

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                                            BOMBSHIP INTREPID

One of the first missions assigned to our fledgling Navy around the turn of the 19^th century was the protection of US merchant shipping from the piracy of the southern Mediterranean Barbary States of Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco.  In October of 1803, CAPT William Bainbridge in the frigate USS PHILADELPHIA, 36, ran aground while chasing a corsair near Tripoli.  His ship and crew were captured; the Tripolitans anchored the frigate in that city’s harbor, under the guns of the fort.

When CDORE Edward Preble, in command of President Jefferson’s Mediterranean Squadron, learned of PHILADELPHIA’s capture he set out for Tripoli with the rest of his Squadron.  On the way, Preble encountered the Tripolitan ketch Mastico, one of the vessels that had participated in the capture of PHILADELPHIA.  Preble seized the ketch and on 23 December 1803, assumed her into the US Navy under the new name INTREPID.  Her Mediterranean rigging allowed INTREPID to blend unnoticed with the local sea traffic, a virtue that was to prove invaluable to Preble.  Unable to negotiate the release of the frigate, Preble sent LT Stephen Decatur on a daring raid to destroy her.  On the evening of 16 February 1804 Decatur dressed his crew in Arab garb and used INTREPID to slip into the harbor unobserved.  Here his crew massed upon PHILADELPHIA and set her ablaze.  She burned to the waterline.

Throughout the Summer of 1804 Preble made other efforts to force the release of Bainbridge, including several naval bombardments of Tripoli.  The Pasha, however, proved unrelenting, and with the approaching end of the good weather season, Preble approved one more daring plan.  INTREPID was packed to the gunwales with five tons of gunpowder, converting her to a floating bomb.  She would once again slip into the harbor after nightfall, where her crew would light the fuses and escape.  Her detonation would potentially breach the seaside wall of the Pasha’s fortification.  Ten volunteers led by Master Commandant Richard Somers, LT Henry Wadsworth and Midshipman Joseph Israel quietly sailed INTREPID toward the harbor on the evening of September 3^rd.

We will never know for certain what happened, but something went seriously amiss.  Before she had gained the inner harbor, INTREPID ignited prematurely in a fantastic blast.  All her hands were lost.  Her demise may have been accidental, or historians have suggested the crew may have intentionally detonated the ship when her capture seemed evident, an obvious act of selfless sacrifice.  The gallant memory of this brave ship and her 13 sailors has been perpetuated with the naming of five US Navy warships, most recently the planned Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, DDG-145

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  9 SEP 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Beach, Edward L.  The United States Navy:  200 Years.  New York, NY: Henry Holt Co., 1986, p. 47-48.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 548.

Maclay, Edgar Stanton.  A History of the United States Navy:  From 1775-1893, Vol I.  New York, NY: D. Appleton and Co., 1893, pp. 286-93.

Miller, Nathan.  The U.S. Navy:  An Illustrated History.  Annapolis, MD: American Heritage and USNI Press, 1977, p. 60.

Potter, E.B. and Chester W. Nimitz.  Sea Power:  A Naval History.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1960, pp. 202-03.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 22-23.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Somers was the author of the bombship scheme.  A Decatur protégé, at the time Somers was commanding the schooner NAUTILUS, 12.  His conduct earlier in the Tripolitan campaign earned him the promotion from Lieutenant to Master Commandant in May of 1804.  The heroism of the 13 men lost with INTREPID has been a continuing source of honor within the US Navy.  A total of six Navy warships have borne the name SOMERS, most recently the Hull-class destroyer DD-947, who saw significant action in the Vietnam War.

About this same time, Henry Wadsworth’s sister, Zilpah, married Stephen Longfellow of what is now Portland, Maine.  Their second child of eight, born in 1807, was named for his uncle—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Ironically the INTREPID ploy backfired.  Nothing in the harbor of consequence was damaged, and loss of the ketch weakened Preble’s blockading fleet.  No less damaging, the failed attempt caused Preble to lose “face” with the Pasha, who hardened his position and upped the ransom demand for Bainbridge’s release.

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“…TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI”

The Bey of Tripoli in 1795, Hamet Karamanli, was overthrown by his younger brother Yusuf.  Hamet sought exile in Egypt where he remained for the next ten years.  During this time the Barbary States, including Tripoli, continually harassed merchant shipping in the Mediterranean, exacting protection money and tribute from many nations transiting the area for commercial trade.  US merchantmen were among those who fell victim to these extortions.

In 1801, the outspoken US Consul in Tunis, William Eaton, advocated pressuring Bey Yusuf by allying ourselves with his exiled brother.  Four years later, after being appointed “Navy Agent to the Barbary States,” Eaton put his plan into action.  Eaton encouraged Hamet to form a motley army of a hundred Arabs, 67 “Christian adventurers” (Greek mercenaries), and 200-odd camel drivers.  This force was led by Eaton and an 8-Marine detachment from the brig ARGUS, 16, commanded by 1^st LT Presley N. O’Bannon.  On this date, Eaton, O’Bannon, Hamet and his army set out from Alexandria.  Their 600-mile trek across the North African desert, during which they fought not only inhospitable conditions but also Hamet’s continuing suggestions to call the whole thing off, ended at Derna on the Tripolitan coast.  Seven weeks later on April 26^th, with gunfire support from ARGUS, the schooner NAUTILUS, 12, and the sloop HORNET, 10, they assaulted the city.  The next day they reached the Derna fortifications where they turned the guns on the fleeing defenders.  LT O’Bannon raised the American flag–the first American ensign to be hoisted over an enemy fort outside the Western Hemisphere.  Despite several spirited counter attacks the Marines held the fort.  When news of the ferocity and determination of the US Marines reached Bey Yusuf, he capitulated.

By May negotiations with Yusuf were opened.  On 3 June a treaty was arranged under which peace was restored, the US evacuated Derna, and $60,000 was paid for the release of CAPT William Bainbridge and the crew of the ill-fated frigate PHILADELPHIA, who had been held captive since PHILADELPHIA ran aground in October of 1803.  In turn Tripoli agreed not to exact future tribute from American shipping.

The familiar phrase above from The Marine’s Hymn was first sung by our Marines in 1847 at the close of the Mexican War.  The tune is that of an old Spanish folk song and was used as a melody in the French comic opera Genevieve de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach.  The reference in the Hymn to the “Halls of Montezuma” remembers the assault on Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City in 1847.  “The shores of Tripoli” recalls the efforts of the US Marines against the Tripolitan Bey, which began 220 years ago today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 14 MAR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.  Soldiers of the Sea:  The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1991, pp. 14-16.

Millett, Allan R.  Semper Fidelis:  The History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 44-45.

Simmons, Edwin H.  The United States Marines, 1775-1975.  New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976, pp. 16-17.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Two of O’Bannon’s Marines died and another was injured in this action.

Following this victory O’Bannon acquired an Arab Mameluke scimitar, reportedly gifted to him in gratitude by Bey Hamet.  That blade became the pattern for the distinctive Mameluke sword currently authorized for Marine Corps officers.  Indeed, this was nearly the only reward O’Bannon received.  Upon returning to his native Virginia, he was awarded another sword by that State, but the Thomas Jefferson administration in Washington failed to recognize his achievement in any form.  After neither brevet nor promotion was forthcoming in the subsequent two years, a disgusted O’Bannon left the Corps, abandoning civilization altogether for the Kentucky frontier.

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